Research in the Social Inference Lab focuses on the following topics: (1) perspective taking, empathy, and mental-state reasoning; (2) cognitive processes in social attention, categorization, evaluation, inference, and judgment; and (3) stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.
In a primary line of research, we study perspective taking and its implications for negotiating socially diverse environments. More specifically, we explore how perceiver-based factors (e.g., incidental emotions) and target-based factors (e.g., social group membership) influence the ability to intuit what other people see, know, want, and believe. We also examine how actively considering other people's thoughts, feelings, and other subjective experiences affects the subtle biases that commonly pervade intergroup encounters and social inference more generally.
In another line of research, we study how automatic mental processes (often in conjunction with more deliberative ones) guide people's impressions of others. We're particularly interested in how a greater understanding of these processes can inform important social issues, such as intergroup bias and diversity management.
In a primary line of research, we study perspective taking and its implications for negotiating socially diverse environments. More specifically, we explore how perceiver-based factors (e.g., incidental emotions) and target-based factors (e.g., social group membership) influence the ability to intuit what other people see, know, want, and believe. We also examine how actively considering other people's thoughts, feelings, and other subjective experiences affects the subtle biases that commonly pervade intergroup encounters and social inference more generally.
In another line of research, we study how automatic mental processes (often in conjunction with more deliberative ones) guide people's impressions of others. We're particularly interested in how a greater understanding of these processes can inform important social issues, such as intergroup bias and diversity management.
